1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a skimmer cover for the neck of a secondary drainage system in a catch basin to prevent entry of floatable material including fluidic material into the neck.
2. Background and Description of Prior Art
Catch basins have long been used to aid the disposal of accumulations of runoff water from areas where the soil surface has been sealed by buildings, roadways, parking lots and the like that prevent direct earth absorption of the water. Such catch basins in their early developmental state were simplistic structures, generally defined by a peripheral berm which created a storage basin from which water directly permeated into the earth therebeneath over a period of time as conditions permitted. As land use became more concentrated and sophisticated, the size of catch basins decreased because of the economics involved and as this trend continued, the removal of water from catch basins came to be aided by the use of secondary drainage systems such as dry wells and storm sewers. With the increased use of such drainage facilities for areas that serviced substantial numbers of hydrocarbon fueled vehicles, such as parking lots, parking garages, roadways and the like, and the increase in societal concerns for environmental protection and pollution, new problems have arisen concerning such drainage facilities.
Generally in areas used for hydrocarbon fueled vehicles, there is a sufficient accumulation of hydrocarbons and their residues of various sorts to be of concern under present day environmental standards. These hydrocarbon materials often are carried into drainage systems, especially during storms or runoff periods that generate unusually high volumes of water, which in the traditional catch basin systems generally has been dispersed into the earth or into some type of a storm sewer system to ultimately be deposited in the earth environment.
This problem has been recognized in the past and a popular solution that has been developed to resolve it has been to create catch basins defined by berms to receive and retain the waste water. The water contacting surfaces of such catch basins are provided with a blanket of vegetation, commonly some type of ornamental grass, that is intended to catch and entrap fluidic hydrocarbon pollutants which supposedly are subsequently modified or changed in nature to alleviate the deleterious effects of such materials on the environment wherein they ultimately come to reside. This type of waste water disposal has become sufficiently popular and standardized that its use is required by various land use and planning statutes and ordinances, as well as by various administrative codes and engineering standards.
In such a system that is serviced by a secondary water disposal system such as a dry well or sewer input orifice to accommodate large volumes of runoff water, however, problems still exist that often allow passage of fluidic hydrocarbon materials or their residues into the secondary water disposal system of a catch basin. Normally if such secondary water disposal systems are provided their entry orifices are medially positioned in a catch basin that may have some substantial depth of water during high runoff periods, but such entry orifices generally by necessity project above the lower surface of the catch basin wherein they are located while. The catch basin, however, may allow storage of water at a substantially greater depth than the entry orifices so when a runoff occurs that results in a waste water level above the level of the entry orifice various floatable materials such as fluidic hydrocarbons and their residues may enter the secondary disposal system rather than remaining in the catch basin for natural degradation. My invention seeks to provide a skimmer cover for such entry orifices that prevents such happening and maintains fluidic and other floatable materials outside the entry orifices and within the associated catch basin.
Gravity separation of contaminant material in runoff water, whether that material be more or less dense than water, has heretofore been known and practiced. Most such separation has developed for sinkable materials such as silt, sand, pebbles and the like which, if they pass into a water disposal system and especially one of the dry well type, tend to plug that system and render it non-usable. Most systems that have removed floatables have been concerned with larger particulate debris such as various vegetative material. Some such systems have separated fluidic floatable material such as hydrocarbons, fats and greases, but generally those systems have captured that material in some type of a container that must be periodically emptied to maintain the operability of the system. Such systems generally have not been designed or adapted to deal with such material left in them. The instant apparatus differs from this prior art by providing a skimming cover that prevents entry of floatable material of either a fluidic or particulate nature into the orifice of a secondary disposal system, but yet maintains that material within the catch basin wherein it was entrapped for subsequent removal of solid material or transformation of floatable material according to normal management activity of the catch basin.
The instant skimmer cover to be practically usable on the orifice of a secondary water disposal system of a catch basin must be fastenably engageable within that orifice and positionally maintainable thereon for operation, while at the same time being removable to allow access to the system through the orifice. Covers heretofore known for such orifices have not provided simply operable positive fastening mechanism, but generally have relied upon the substantial mass of a cover to allow positional maintenance by means of gravity and have established proper positioning by use of particular joint structure, if at all. Covers that have provided positive fastening means generally have been complex and have provided fastening mechanism that may be easily tampered with by unauthorized users. The instant cover in contradistinction provides a simple but effective pivotally expandable arm structure that is operated by a medial threaded rod to cause fastening with proper concentric positioning in an orifice while not requiring interfitting joint structure or reconfiguration of the neck. The threaded rod may have a particularly shaped head to require use of a particular tool to cause its rotation to tend to avoid operation by unauthorized users.
My invention resides not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of my skimmer cover that necessarily give rise to the functions flowing therefrom, as herein specified and claimed.